If you have ever went to a football game, whether it be college or the NFL, you just do not go for the game. You go for the whole entertainment package. You go for the tailgating experience hours before. You go to be with friends and/or family. You go for the entertainment that the stadium brings, whether it be the halftime show, the cheerleaders, the horns and whistles of the home team getting the fans ramped up in every way, shape and form. This is the game day experience. When I go to the NYC Hot Expo, I go for the whole enchilada. This Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23, 2017, I come for the party.

Calling all manufacturers of spicy goods! Do you want your product to be seen by 200,000 chileheads? Does a full page in Chile Pepper to showcase your products sound good? What about being included in Chile Pepper’s renewal notices? An award to prove to your peers and customers just how tasty your product is?If your answer is a resounding YES!, then you need to enter The Chile Pepper Awards competition. And the good news is that there’s still time to meet the deadline of October 21.

You can just find out by going to their website, (http://www.theflaveawards.com/) to see what it is all about since I am pretty much copying and pasting their information right here. Well, mostly. The International Flavor Awards, LLC (IFA’s) in conjunction with the creators of the Summer Feast Food & Music Festival are excited to invite you to compete in the “2016 Flave Awards”. More about the Summer Feast below. The Flave Awards are brand spanking new to this industry, so new there is no pictures yet of what they look like with less than a month to go. They mention a glass trophy for all winners and ribbons for 2nd and 3rd place so at least that is something. There are over 50 categories with an introductory cost of only $50/entry, but with 1 free entry if you enter 3 categories at $150 and 2 free entries if you enter 5 categories at $250. That isn’t too bad to compete for something to put on display for customers to know you done right. Now here is the part I think you will like the most, so pay close attention to what you read next:

The NYC Hot Sauce Expo is proud to announce the 2016 Screaming Mi Mi Award winners. With hundreds of entries the winners were selected by blind taste test by New Yorks finest and brightest in the culinary industry. The panel consisted of chefs from FOX, CBS and Food Networks, Food Critics from NYC Newspapers, Bloggers, Magazines, Hot Sauce Retailers, and some of NYC’s Top Chefs. The Screaming Mi Mi Awards have been creating a large industry buzz within the Hot Sauce Community. Past winners have received features on TV, magazines, newspapers creating a profile that has lead for their product distributed by wholesalers and national retail outlets.

These are the winners’ list from the 2016 Zestfest Fiery Food Challenge last night. I see a lot of friends that I know in the hot sauce world. I would like to congratulate them on seeing their hard work pay off. I am very happy for you all. Super congratulations to Troy Primo of Primo’s Peppers for having the Best Overall Product as seen in the picture above. It looks like he also won a Disc-It! Grill as Fiber Joe has covered in his article in November. Nice Job Troy!Company – Product – Place

Through my taco travels I have been approached by many, as to why people would eat Lengua, Tripas, or Cabeza. A lot of people think that its just weird and freaks them out. For those of you who do not know what these are. These types of food have been around since Humans have been eating animals. Eaten for their high content of fat. This for me , gives them a distinctive taste and texture. Using every part of the animal was something you did so nothing went to waste. So, lets take a trip down to the Unusual meat locker. This month let’s Taco bout Lengua.

The NYC Hot Sauce Expo is proud to announce the 2015 Screaming Mi Mi Award winners. With hundreds of entries the winners were selected by blind taste test by New Yorks finest and brightest in the culinary industry. The panel consisted of chefs from FOX, CBS and Food Networks, Food Critics from NYC Newspapers, Bloggers, Magazines, Hot Sauce Retailers, Wholesalers and some of NYC’s Top Chefs. The Screaming Mi Mi Awards have been creating a large industry buzz within the Hot Sauce Community. Past winners have received features on TV, magazines, newspapers creating a profile that has lead for their product distributed by wholesalers and national retail outlets.

The Screaming Mi Mi Awards were presented in front of the media and live audience on Saturday April 24th at the 3rd Annual NYC Hot Sauce Expo. This was a year to remember with some amazing highlights. CaJohn’s took the Three-Peat in the Louisiana Style Hot Sauce with their Firehouse Hot Sauce, Defcon Sauces took the first ever sweep in Screaming Mi Mi history collecting 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the Chicken Wing category and Brooklyn newcomer Queen Majesty took 2 Screaming Mi Mi’s in the Jalapeno and All Natural categories. It was a tightly scored competition and the winners are very much deserved.

Just in case you did not notice the Ticklemaster part of the above ticket, it is fake. There is no ticket for $499.99, so please do not panic! The time to panic is when you enter one of the many scheduled events at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo. Such as the Puckerbutt Guinness Book of World Records Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper pepper eating record for 1 minute. A slight change from last year’s 3 pepper eating and done display. That will end the show on Sunday.

Then there is our 3rd Annual Fiery Pizza Eating Contest co-sponsored with our friends at Volcanic Peppers and the infamous Grimaldi’s Pizzeria. Each contestant will get a Volcanically Enhanced Grimaldi’s pizza that they have to eat in a pre-determined amount of time. The first one finished or eats the most will be declared the winner and get this beautiful trophy…

This is the 2nd of 2 photo contests for the Facebook Group Chileheads. I have selected 15 of my favorites from the over 100 submissions. The picture will be featured atop the Chileheads group page for all to see for at least 1 month. Since there are so many great pics including those that did not make the cut, I will be using some of those non-winning photos in the future as the featured photo of the month. The winning photo will be determined by the poll below and the most votes will win of course. I will get my Mom to break all ties if I have to. Don’t make me do it! She is a Jewish Grandmother and loves bacon, so some of these might have an obvious advantage. Just sayin’.

I would like to thank all those people that submitted their foodie love for this contest. I am sorry for those that did not make the cut. Sole blame comes down to me as I was the only one that chose them. I determined them simply by whether I thought they were colorful enough, drool-worthy enough and eye-catching enough to sit atop of the group page. Not every photo would fit right (vertically challenged), some had companies products in them, and I tried to avoid advertising so as not to think I was being paid off. Some were a little on the dark side or just did not pop enough for me. Some had background issues and others were a little too greasy in appearance. There were a lot of great BBQ and soup pics and for the most part I just went in a different direction. Not saying they were not worthy, but I had to make some tough cuts. I think with all contests, there will be some disappointed folks and other people that think I made a mistake. I get that and I will take it on the chin, but since I am providing the prize (2 bottles of hot sauce from my favorite stock from 2 different companies), and I felt I would pick what I liked the most and let you good people sort it all out with your votes.

Finally no names are attached to the photos as not to influence the vote. I know some of you will know, but please keep it to yourselves. I rather have a straight vote on what people liked rather than a popularity contest. I know some of you will go find people to vote for you, but I hope it isn’t about who has the most Facebook friends and Twitter followers and it is about who has the most drool-worthy picture for our Chileheads group page. Good luck to all the contestants. Please vote below as well as the stuffed pepper photos as well that you can find HERE. I am awarding two winners instead of just one winner, one for each of the photo votes. We have a Chileheads 2 group as well which is free from reviews and chile pepper pics. People use it to share recipes, talk about restaurants and products they discovered as well a place for companies and events to promote what is going on. I will post one of the 2 winners in this groups banner as well and switch them in April.